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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1Thousands stage silent NZ march for shooting victimshttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/thousands-stage-silent-nz-march-for-shooting-victims/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/thousands-stage-silent-nz-march-for-shooting-victims/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 11:16:12 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116330CHRISTCHURCH (AFP) – More than 10,000 people marched silently on Thursday through the New Zealand city where the alleged shooter in last week’s massacre had lived, as the country paid its respects to the 50 victims of the tragedy. Marchers made their way through Dunedin to a rugby stadium where a total of about 15,000 ...

]]>CHRISTCHURCH (AFP) – More than 10,000 people marched silently on Thursday through the New Zealand city where the alleged shooter in last week’s massacre had lived, as the country paid its respects to the 50 victims of the tragedy.

Marchers made their way through Dunedin to a rugby stadium where a total of about 15,000 people eventually gathered for a sombre vigil, New Zealand media reported.

The accused killer, Australian-born 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant, had lived for the past two years in the city on New Zealand’s South Island before carrying out last Friday’s slaughter in Christchurch, about 350 kilometres (220 miles) to the north.

A self-avowed white supremacist, Tarrant took advantage of New Zealand’s relatively lax gun laws to acquire military-style semi-automatic weapons that he used to gun down worshippers at two Christchurch mosques.

The Otago Daily Times said the march began at the University of Otago, about 20 minutes walk away from Forsyth Barr Stadium.

The marchers were joined by thousands more who had made their way there for ceremonies that included Maori incantations and Muslim prayers.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull called on New Zealanders to come together in support of those left bereft by the tragedy.

“We need to examine what needs to change so that this does not happen again,” he said, according to the newspaper.

“To my Muslim brothers and sisters… you are a precious part of us and we embrace you.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday announced an immediate ban on the military-style semi-automatic weapons used in the slayings.

Also on Thursday, hundreds of mourners turned out in Christchurch for a second straight day for the funerals of those killed.

Ardern has said a national remembrance ceremony would be held soon but a date has not yet been given.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/thousands-stage-silent-nz-march-for-shooting-victims/feed/0Pak-India tensions still worry US: officialhttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/pak-india-tensions-still-worry-us-official/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/pak-india-tensions-still-worry-us-official/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 11:15:50 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116337WASHINGTON:(Reuters) – The United States remains concerned about Pakistan-India tensions as the two nuclear-armed countries’ militaries remain on alert despite some de-escalation in the region, a US official said on Wednesday. “We do still see the militaries on alert and so we realise if there, God forbid, would be another terrorist attack, then you could ...

]]>WASHINGTON:(Reuters) – The United States remains concerned about Pakistan-India tensions as the two nuclear-armed countries’ militaries remain on alert despite some de-escalation in the region, a US official said on Wednesday.

“We do still see the militaries on alert and so we realise if there, God forbid, would be another terrorist attack, then you could quickly see escalation in the situation once again,” the official told reporters.

In the first such clash since the 1971 war, Pakistan downed an Indian plane and captured its pilot after he ejected in Azad Kashmir.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/pak-india-tensions-still-worry-us-official/feed/0In Israel, Pompeo resorts to Iranophobia to boost Netanyahu’s reelection bidhttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/in-israel-pompeo-resorts-to-iranophobia-to-boost-netanyahus-reelection-bid/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/in-israel-pompeo-resorts-to-iranophobia-to-boost-netanyahus-reelection-bid/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 11:06:54 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116314 Muslim Times(Web Desk) – On a trip to the occupied Palestinian territories ahead of Israeli general elections, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has vowed to step up pressure against Iran in an apparent bid to help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retain his position. Pompeo and Netanyahu said during a joint press conference on Wednesday ...

]]> Muslim Times(Web Desk) – On a trip to the occupied Palestinian territories
ahead of Israeli general elections, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has vowed
to step up pressure against Iran in an apparent bid to help Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu retain his position.

Pompeo and
Netanyahu said during a joint press conference on Wednesday that they were
going to use all in their power to counter what they referred to as the Iranian
“aggression.”

“With
such threats a daily reality of Israeli life, we maintain our unparalleled
commitment to Israel’s security and firmly support your right to defend
yourself,” said the top US diplomat.

Pompeo
claimed that the US-led anti-Iran conference in the Polish capital of Warsaw
last month, which was attended by Israel and some Arab nations, was focused
mainly on exploring possible options “to stop Iran’s regional
rampage.”

The meeting
turned into an embarrassing failure for Washington as many countries either
refused to attend or decided to send low-level officials to show their
discontent with Trump’s Iran policy.

Israel and
the US have been desperately looking for ways to end Iran’s influence in the
Middle East region, where it has helped the Iraqi and Syrian governments purge
foreign-backed terrorists from most of their territories.

While US President Donald Trump has chosen to drop out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and impose more economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic to force Tehran to leave Syria and Iraq, Tel Aviv has chosen a more direct path by mounting numerous attacks against Syrian government positions that it claims are being used by Iranian military advisers.

Flanking
Pompeo, Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to prevent Iranian advisers’ presence
in Syria and thanked the Trump administration for its support.

“There
is no limitation to our freedom of action, and we appreciate very much the fact
that the United States backs up our actions as we do them,” Netanyahu
said.

Pompeo’s
regional tour is focused largely on Iran, but his meeting with Netanyahu has
been viewed as a move to help Netanyahu with his re-election fight, especially
since he has turned down requests to meet with the Israeli premier’s political
opponents.

Facing a
stiff competition from a centrist alliance in April 9 polls while under threat
of indictment for corruption, Netanyahu is slated to arrive in Washington next
week, where he will meet Trump twice.

Pompeo said
before touching down in Tel Aviv that his trip to Israel was not related to
politics, arguing that the “relationship matters, no matter who the
leaders are.”

‘Arab NATO’
alliance against Iran

Pompeo, who
planned to travel to Lebanon next, began his regional tour in Kuwait where he
met Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to discuss the Middle East Strategic
Alliance (MESA), a NATO-style bloc aimed at uniting Washington’s Arab allies
against Tehran.

He has
called on Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both members of MESA, to end their ongoing
political dispute, where Riyadh and some of its regional allies – including
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—have boycotted Doha since 2017 for
funding terrorism and maintaining close ties to Iran.

Qatar denies
the allegations and says the rival states aim to incite regime change in Doha.

Israeli-Palestinian
conflict

The Israeli
parliamentary elections also start the countdown to the presentation of an
Israeli-Palestinian agreement that Trump has long been referring to as the
“deal of the century.”

The product
of a Whit House team led by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the deal is said
to be strongly pro-Israeli.

Pompeo had
announced ahead of the trip that he will not meet with representatives of the
Palestinian Authority to discuss peace talks.

The PA has
cut all ties with Washington in the wake of several hostile moves by the Trump
administration, including cutting most of the US aid to the UN agency for
Palestinian refugees and the American president’s decision in December 2017 to
recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of Israel.

The decision
caused uproar among Palestinians, who say the eastern part of the city will be
the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Pompeo would
also make a stop at the new US embassy in al-Quds during the two-day visit.

Syria’s
Golan Heights

The trip is
also overshadowed by a controversial decision by the White House to change the
wording it uses to refer to Golan Heights, Syrian territories that have fallen
under Israeli control in 1967.

While the UN refuses to recognize the area as Israeli territory, Washington has announced that it will refer to the Golan Heights as “Israeli-occupied” and calls the territory seized from Syria “controlled” by Israel.

The move has
been viewed by observers as a prelude to full recognition of the strategic
plateau as Israeli land.

Pompeo was
also going to meet with with Netanyahu, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday night to discuss the EastMed
gas pipeline from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/in-israel-pompeo-resorts-to-iranophobia-to-boost-netanyahus-reelection-bid/feed/0Nigerians hold rally to express support for Ibrahim Zakzakyhttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/nigerians-hold-rally-to-express-support-for-ibrahim-zakzaky/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/nigerians-hold-rally-to-express-support-for-ibrahim-zakzaky/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 10:58:18 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116324Muslim Times(web Desk) – Dozens of Nigerians held a rally in the capital Abuja on Wednesday to express support for prominent Shia cleric Shiekh Ibrahim Zakzaky. The slogan-chanting protesters called on authorities to immediately release Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife. Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, has been held in detention since ...

]]>Muslim Times(web Desk) – Dozens of Nigerians held a rally in the capital Abuja on Wednesday to express support for prominent Shia cleric Shiekh Ibrahim Zakzaky.

The
slogan-chanting protesters called on authorities to immediately release Sheikh
Zakzaky and his wife.

Zakzaky,
the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, has been held in detention since
December 2015 and was charged just in April 2018 with murder, culpable
homicide, unlawful assembly, disruption of public peace and other accusations.
He has pleaded not guilty.

In
2016, Nigeria’s federal high court ordered his unconditional release from jail
following a trial, but the government has so far refused to set him free.

The
top cleric, who is in his mid-sixties, lost his left eyesight in a raid which
was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of
Zaria in December 2015.

During
the raid, Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his
followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large
number of the cleric’s followers have since been in custody.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/nigerians-hold-rally-to-express-support-for-ibrahim-zakzaky/feed/0All 50 victims of Christchurch attack identified: policehttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/all-50-victims-of-christchurch-attack-identified-police/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/all-50-victims-of-christchurch-attack-identified-police/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:26:38 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116230CHRISTCHURCH (AFP) – New Zealand police on Thursday said that all 50 victims of last week’s terror attack in Christchurch had now been identified, allowing burials to take place. “I can say that as of a few minutes ago the identification process and to all 50 victims has been completed and all of the next ...

]]>CHRISTCHURCH (AFP) – New Zealand police on Thursday said that all 50 victims of last week’s terror attack in Christchurch had now been identified, allowing burials to take place.

“I can say that as of a few minutes ago the identification process and to all 50 victims has been completed and all of the next of kin have been advised,” said commissioner Mike Bush. “That is a landmark for this process.”

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/all-50-victims-of-christchurch-attack-identified-police/feed/0Palestinian killed in West Bank by Israeli gunfirehttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/palestinian-killed-in-west-bank-by-israeli-gunfire/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/palestinian-killed-in-west-bank-by-israeli-gunfire/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:25:40 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116222Muslim Times(Web Desk) – Israeli soldiers have attacked a civilian vehicle near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, killing a Palestinian man. The Palestinian health ministry said Ahmed Manasara, 26, was shot dead on Wednesday near a checkpoint close to Bethlehem, without providing further details. The Israeli military claimed that a soldier had “opened fire ...

]]>Muslim
Times(Web Desk) – Israeli soldiers have attacked a civilian vehicle near the
West Bank city of Bethlehem, killing a Palestinian man.

The
Palestinian health ministry said Ahmed Manasara, 26, was shot dead on Wednesday
near a checkpoint close to Bethlehem, without providing further details.

The
Israeli military claimed that a soldier had “opened fire after identifying
rocks being thrown at Israeli vehicles.”

“The
incident will be examined,” the army said in a statement early Thursday.

Official
Palestinian news agency Wafa said Manasara was in the car when he was shot
dead, with another Palestinian in the car seriously wounded.

Tensions
are high in the West Bank over ongoing Israeli aggression at the al-Aqsa Mosque
compound in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds.

On
Sunday, the Jerusalem al-Quds Magistrate’s Court announced that it had accepted
a request by Israeli officials to temporarily close Bab al-Rahma (Gate of
Mercy) prayer area at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The
prayer area of the al-Rahma Gate was closed on February 25 upon an order by
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and reopened the following day.

Israel
had closed the gate that leads to the prayer space in al-Aqsa Mosque since 2003
in the face of the Second Intifada (uprising) against the regime’s occupation.

On
February 22, however, the Waqf Council, which oversees the holy sites at the
al-Aqsa Mosque compound, decided to re-open the prayer space at the Bab
al-Rahma Gate in defiance of Israel’s 16-year-old ban. Hundreds of worshipers,
led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem al-Quds, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, entered
the area for the first time since 2003 for Friday prayers.

Angered
by the move, the Tel Aviv regime launched an arrest campaign against
Palestinians. The arrests drew criticisms from Palestinians and Jordan. The
Islamic Waqf organization and Palestinian institutions have insisted on keeping
the Bab al-Rahma prayer area open for Muslim worship.

Palestinians
have repeatedly warned of Israeli attempts to change the status quo of the
al-Aqsa compound, the third holiest site in Islam.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/palestinian-killed-in-west-bank-by-israeli-gunfire/feed/0France to deploy soldiers to deal with next protestshttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/france-to-deploy-soldiers-to-deal-with-next-protests/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/france-to-deploy-soldiers-to-deal-with-next-protests/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:23:07 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116225(AFP) – French soldiers will be deployed Saturday to help guard public buildings, allowing police to focus on dealing with “yellow vest” demonstrators in case of renewed violence in Paris and other cities, the government said Wednesday. The troops will be redeployed from the “Sentinelle” anti-terror operation, which patrols streets and protects airports, train stations, ...

]]>(AFP) – French soldiers will be deployed
Saturday to help guard public buildings, allowing police to focus on dealing
with “yellow vest” demonstrators in case of renewed violence in Paris
and other cities, the government said Wednesday.

The
troops will be redeployed from the “Sentinelle” anti-terror
operation, which patrols streets and protects airports, train stations, places
of worship and other sites, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told
reporters.

This
will allow police forces to “concentrate on crowd control, along with
maintaining law and order,” he said.

Last
Saturday, more than 5,000 police officers failed to stop hundreds of violent
protesters from rampaging along the Champs-Elysees, burning and looting over
100 businesses in a rampage that lasted more than seven hours.

After
the rioting, the government sacked Paris police chief Michel Delpuech.

Two
other top police officials, including one of Delpuech’s aides, will also be
removed from their positions, government sources told AFP.

The
deployment of troops is intended to allow riot police to engage more
aggressively with the far-left and far-right groups as well as anarchists who
have been blamed for much of the violence.

But
some police unions have warned that maintaining law and order was not the role
of a soldier.

“I’m
worried about how they’ll respond in case of attack,” said Philippe Capon
of the Unsa-Police union.

Troops
were originally deployed on the streets in January 2015 after the massacre at
the Charlie Hebdo magazine, and their patrols have become a regular sight in
Paris and other cities.

The
government has also announced plans to outlaw protests along the famed
Champs-Elysees and other key areas if hooligans once again infiltrate the
“yellow vest” demonstrations, which have taken place every Saturday
since mid-November.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/france-to-deploy-soldiers-to-deal-with-next-protests/feed/0Iran will never allow others to decide its fate: Zarifhttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/iran-will-never-allow-others-to-decide-its-fate-zarif/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/iran-will-never-allow-others-to-decide-its-fate-zarif/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:20:55 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116219 Muslim Times(Web Desk) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Iranian nation’s struggle to nationalize the country’s oil industry in 1951 is proof that the country will never allow others to decide its fate. “This isn’t the first time that Iran has been targeted for exercising its right to decide its own destiny: ...

]]> Muslim Times(Web Desk) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the
Iranian nation’s struggle to nationalize the country’s oil industry in 1951 is
proof that the country will never allow others to decide its fate.

“This
isn’t the first time that Iran has been targeted for exercising its right to
decide its own destiny: 68 yrs ago today, parliament under
democratically-elected PM [Mohammad] Mossadeq nationalized our oil industry. A
coup followed. Iranians will never allow others to decide their fate,” he
said in a tweet on Wednesday.

On March 20,
1951, members of the Iranian parliament voted unanimously to approve a bill
that Mossadeq, the country’s then democratically-elected prime minister at the
time, had introduced to nationalize Iran’s oil industry.

Mosaddeq’s
nationalist party backed the initiative, which had won the support of the
country’s religious figures as a result of efforts led by prominent cleric
Ayatollah Abolqasem Kashani.

Before the
nationalization, the British oil giant Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC)
controlled all aspects of the industry and paid only fraction of the revenues
to Iran.

In
retaliation for Mosaddeq’s move, Britain and the United States subjected Iran’s
oil sector to harsh economic sanctions.

When they
realized that the sanctions were not effective, London and Washington colluded
to stage a coup against the Iranian PM’s government in 1953 in order to
reinstate Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Western-backed monarch.

Declassified
documents released by the he US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) six decades
later confirmed Washington’s role in the coup d’état.

“The military coup that overthrew
Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as
an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of
government,” read one of the documents, released in August 2013.

Today, Iran
sits on some 10 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. The country joined
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1960 and
remains one of the major oil producers.

The US has
never stopped its hostile moves to curtail Iran’s thriving oil industry.

Zarif’s
tweet came at a time that Washington, under President Donald Trump, has been
trying to drive down Iranian oil exports to zero through imposing major
sanctions.

Trump
re-imposed what he called “toughest ever” sanctions on Iran’s energy industry
last year, after abandoning the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world
powers—the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.

Following
the exit from the landmark agreement, Trump said he would maintain the economic
pressure to the point that Iran’s oil exports would hit zero.

However,
that strategy failed when major purchasers of Iranian energy failed to find
viable replacement, forcing Washington to issue longtime waivers.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/iran-will-never-allow-others-to-decide-its-fate-zarif/feed/0Algeria’s Bouteflika to step down after new votehttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/algerias-bouteflika-to-step-down-after-new-vote/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/algerias-bouteflika-to-step-down-after-new-vote/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:18:03 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116218(Reuters) – Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will hand over power to a democratically elected successor after a new constitution is approved and a national conference is held, Deputy Prime Minister Ramtane Lamamra said on Wednesday. “The plan to get out of this situation, the plan which President Bouteflika presented on March 11, states that the ...

]]>(Reuters) – Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will hand over power to a democratically elected successor after a new constitution is approved and a national conference is held, Deputy Prime Minister Ramtane Lamamra said on Wednesday.

“The plan to get out of this situation, the plan which President Bouteflika presented on March 11, states that the president is committed not to run in any new election and that the collective, independent national conference is the one to fix the date of this election,” he told a news conference in Berlin.

“Once this national conference happens … and a new constitution is in place … a presidential election will be held and by then the term of President Bouteflika will expire and the presidency will be handed over to the person elected by the Algerian people,” Lamamra said.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/21/algerias-bouteflika-to-step-down-after-new-vote/feed/0Christchurch mosque terror attacks: Gun owners voluntarily handing over semi-automatic rifles to policehttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/christchurch-mosque-terror-attacks-gun-owners-voluntarily-handing-over-semi-automatic-rifles-to-police/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/christchurch-mosque-terror-attacks-gun-owners-voluntarily-handing-over-semi-automatic-rifles-to-police/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 12:53:34 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116176(Web Desk) – A New Zealand farmer has voluntarily handed in his automatic firearm after the tragic killing of 50 people in two of the country’s mosques. Following the news, prime minister Jacinda Ardern condemned it a “terror attack” and vowed to ban automatic weapons as soon as possible. John Hart hadn’t needed a law ...

]]>(Web Desk) – A New Zealand farmer has voluntarily handed in his automatic firearm after the tragic killing of 50 people in two of the country’s mosques.

Following the news, prime minister Jacinda Ardern condemned it a “terror attack” and vowed to ban automatic weapons as soon as possible.

John Hart hadn’t needed a law change to hand in his weapon to the police to prevent it from being used to harm someone.

“I had had that gun since it was made,” he told CNN. “I was glad it had never harmed a person. Now I can know that it never harmed a person, so I have some reassurance in that.”

The 46-year-old has owned guns for over 20 years and lives on his 50-acre farm in Masterton.He tweeted about his decision, and reasoned that he had to “make sure it’s #NeverAgain’” in reference to the shooting.”

“Until today I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semi-automatic rifle,” he wrote.

On the farm they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesn’t outweigh the risk of misuse.

We don’t need these in our country.

We have to make sure it’s #NeverAgain.He tweeted about his decision, and reasoned that he had to “make sure it’s #NeverAgain’” in reference to the shooting.”

“Until today I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semi-automatic rifle,” he wrote.

On the farm they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesn’t outweigh the risk of misuse.